Preach Hell like Jesus – Gehenna

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Last week I kinda vented about the efficacy of hellfire and brimstone teaching. I’ve seen its negative consequences, and it had no positive results in my own faith. But given that I lack the insight into the hearts of men, it’s pretty arrogant for me to make blanket statements of fact based on my own anecdotal experience.

So, I propose we look to Jesus.

Assumptions

Jesus street-preached on hell, right? Well, let’s answer as concretely as possible. To do that, let’s base this concrete statement on some assumptions.

“Hell” is an English word that doesn’t have a direct translation to Greek. Instead, multiple distinct terms (tartarus, hadēs, and gehenna, each with complete with distinct imagery and symbolism) are used by Jesus and New Testament authors, and translators and theologians alike have often lumped them together as “hell”.

While some theologians debate the mechanics of the non-heaven afterlife, it is not commonly argued that there is zero biblical support for some negative alternative post-death experience. For the simplicity of our thought exercise, we’ll call such an afterlife experience that is in some way distinct from the sort of eternal communion with Jesus that Christians are expected to enjoy (i.e. “heaven”) “hell”, regardless of the details of said experience.

Like the end times, there are strong indications that many of the Bible’s statements traditionally attached to hell might not be attributed to such a negative alternative post-death experience. Such debatable passages could not unquestioningly contribute toward a concrete answer.

Let’s summarize, just for simplicity’s sake:

Sometimes “hell” in English Bibles is more presumption than translation.

I know it can seem a bit silly to lay out such things, but it helps to establish a common denominator that lake-of-fire believers and annihilationists (and most others) can agree upon.

So, did Jesus preach on hell? Yes, He did. But let’s analyze those teachings so that we can determine the exact model Jesus portrayed for us to follow. I can think of no better approach here than to list them by the word used.

Gehenna as Hell

This week, I’m looking at the Greek word gehenna. For those who aren’t familiar with the historical context of the term, it’s a valley outside Jerusalem which saw a number of historical fires, deaths, and even child sacrifice through the centuries. Some (going as far back as the 13th century rabbi David Kimhi) hold that in the time of Jesus, it contained a perpetually burning trash heap that served the dual purpose of the primary burial place for the city, but the lack of archeological evidence leads some to consider this mere urban legend. The certainty, though, is that it was a nearby physical place.

Note: all verses that follow are from the NIV.

Matthew 5:21-22

Audience: primarily Jewish followers Setting: mountainside near the Sea of Galilee and Capernaum

“You have heard that it was said to those of old, ‘You shall not murder; and whoever murders will be liable to judgment.’ But I say to you that everyone who is angry with his brother will be liable to judgment; whoever insults his brother will be liable to the council; and whoever says, ‘You fool!’ will be liable to the hell of fire.”

Matthew 5:29-30

Audience: primarily Jewish followers Setting: mountainside near the Sea of Galilee and Capernaum

If your right eye causes you to stumble, gouge it out and throw it away. It is better for you to lose one part of your body than for your whole body to be thrown into hell. And if your right hand causes you to stumble, cut it off and throw it away. It is better for you to lose one part of your body than for your whole body to go into hell.

Matthew 10:28

Audience: the 12 disciples Setting: private

“Do not be afraid of those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. Rather, be afraid of the One who can destroy both soul and body in hell.”

Matthew 18:9 (paralleled in Mark 9:43-45)

Audience: the 12 disciples Setting: private

“And if your eye causes you to stumble, gouge it out and throw it away. It is better for you to enter life with one eye than to have two eyes and be thrown into the fire of hell.””

Matthew 23:15

Audience: followers and bystanders Setting: public

“Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You travel over land and sea to win a single convert, and when you have succeeded, you make them twice as much a child of hell as you are.”

Matthew 23:33

Audience: followers and bystanders Setting: public

“You snakes! You brood of vipers! How will you escape being condemned to hell?”

Mark 9:43-45 (paralleled in Matthew 18:9)

If your hand causes you to stumble, cut it off. It is better for you to enter life maimed than with two hands to go into hell, where the fire never goes out.

Luke 12:4-5

Audience: disciples directly, bystanders indirectly Setting: public

“I tell you, my friends, do not be afraid of those who kill the body and after that can do no more. But I will show you whom you should fear: Fear him who, after your body has been killed, has authority to throw you into hell. Yes, I tell you, fear him.”

Conclusion: No Support

Before we consider these all holistically, it’s also worth noting that gehenna occurs in James 3:6 as well. Speaking of the tongue, the brother of Jesus wrote:

It corrupts the whole body, sets the whole course of one’s life on fire, and is itself set on fire by hell.

Here we see James using the term in a very similar manner to a few of his brother’s teachings (Matthew 5:29-30, 18:9; Mark 9:43-45) wherein one body part condemned the rest to gehenna.

As for answering the core question, it’s worth noting that there is a great deal of criticism as to whether this is referring to an afterlife scenario.

Jesus never comes out and says anything of the sort, the locals of the time knew gehenna (and its asbestos pyr or unquenchable fire) as an actual location like “Central Park” is to New Yorkers. That’s a pretty fair parallel, actually. Even accounting for annual pilgrims to Jerusalem (and therefore the vicinity of gehenna) from all over NT Israel’s roughly 10,000 square miles, it’s all that different from New York’s metro area of 13,000 square miles of residents who only occasionally if ever have cause to interact with Central Park. It’s very reasonable to believe these reference a specific location.

The Jewish listeners would have known the valley’s historical context, from the horrible offerings to Molech to Josiah’s purging response (2 Kings 23:10) and could have easily drawn fiery symbolism from these descriptions. Yet any symbology that might have mentally connected to the afterlife in the minds of those hearing Christ’s words is conjecture. Not even Matthew, who repeatedly mentions the term to his Jewish audience, provides any such context.

So based on our assumption criteria above, these quotes cannot be used.

But let’s not end this one there. Let’s assume that eternal torment was a concept well-recognized as gehenna by the audiences at the time, despite having no Old Testament precedent and despite the term being a commonplace location. Does Jesus resemble the hellfire preaching we see on street corners today?

Consider the Audience, Setting, and Topic

Based on these examples alone, we’d be hard-pressed to find support for Jesus telling people they’re going to hell en masse as part of His Gospel ministry.

Of these eight examples, the majority happened with his followers (6 of 8, though one was a public setting). The other two times, it was not the crowds that He condemned. It was the religious elite (Matthew 23:15, 33).

We have to project a great deal of extra-biblical insight onto these texts in order to claim that they depict hell as we’ve defined it. Additionally, we don’t see Jesus doing anything like condemning people in droves. The only condemnation he seems to show is toward other condemners.

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Philip Osgood is a Christian husband, father, and writer who considers himself a passable video game player, fiction reader, camping and hiking enthusiast, welder, computer guy, and fitness aficionado, though real experts in each field might just die of laughter to hear him claim it. He has been called snarky, cynical, intelligent, eccentric, creative, logical, and Steve for some reason. Phil and his beautiful wife Clara live in Texas with their children in a house with a dog but no white picket fence. He does own a titanium spork from ThinkGeek, though, so he must be alright.